Jul 16, 2015 01:41 PMThe MDG report confirms that goal-setting can lift millions of people out of poverty, empower women and girls, improve health and well-being, and provide vast new opportunities for better lives.

Apr 01, 2015 11:55 AMSehore (Madhya Pradesh): Narmada, the river that is considered to be the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh is facing challenges not of its own making. Climate change is now impacting the health of the river, which also impacts the sustenance of the lush green fields of wheat and chickpea around the Narmada.
Leeladhar Manjhi, a fifty- year-old fisherman and a native of Budhni, a Nagar Palika in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, said that rains had become very erratic in the last two decades. “Sometimes it rains very heavily, other times there are no rains at all. Earlier, it used to used to rain for four months in the monsoon season, nowadays it rains only for one or two months,” he said.
Manjhi said that income from fishing has dwindled over the years. “My income from fishing is just enough to sustain the family. Scanty rainfall is having an adverse impact on fish breeding. Also, because of less water in the river, there is less silt deposit near the banks which is harming melon cultivation,” he said.

Mar 12, 2015 03:15 PMBhopal: It is not without a reason that Bhopal is called the city of lakes. Numerous lakes, small and big, dot the city but the ones that have attained global recognition are known as the Bhoj wetland. Designated as a Ramsar site, the Bhoj Wetland consists of the Upper Lake and the Lower Lake. Bhopal city has grown around the Upper Lake, which is over a thousand years old and the residents of the city have made the lakes a mainstay of their activities.
Gulshan Bamra, Commissioner-cum-Director, Town & Country Planning, Madhya Pradesh, says: “People of Bhopal love their lakes and are ready to put even their lives at stake for their conservation.” Even those residents who do not derive direct economic benefits from the lake also keen to preserve it for the sake of strong cultural, historical and architectural interests.
Bamra adds that the entire catchment area of the Bhoj Wetland has been declared a no-colonisation zone and the usage of land in the catchment area is limited to agricultural activities. “Construction is a strictly regulated activity in this area of 400 sq km which is spread in Bhopal and the neighbouring Sehore district, and also includes a hundred odd villages in its stretch,” he said.